The season premiere episode was "Stark Raving Dad", which guest starred
Michael
Jackson as the speaking voice of Leon Kompowsky. One of
Jackson's conditions for guest starring was that he voiced himself
under a pseudonym.[5]
While he recorded the voice work for the character, all of his
singing was performed by Kipp Lennon,[6]
because Jackson wanted to play a joke on his brothers.[5]
Michael Jackson's lines were recorded at a second session by
Brooks.[7]
The January 30, 1992 rerun of the episode featured a brief
alternate opening, which was written in response to a comment made
by then-President of the United
StatesGeorge H. W. Bush. On January 27,
1992 Bush made a speech during his re-election campaign where he
said, "we are going to keep on trying to strengthen the American
family, to make American families a lot more like The Waltons and a lot
less like The
Simpsons."[8]
The writers decided that they wanted to respond by adding a
response to the next broadcast of The Simpsons, which was
a rerun of "Stark Raving Dad" on January 30. The broadcast included
a new tongue-in-cheek opening where they watch Bush's speech. Bart
replies "hey, we're just like the Waltons. We're praying for an end
to the Depression, too".[9][10]

Reception

In 2003, Entertainment Weekly
published a list of its 25 favorite episodes and placed "Homer at
the Bat", "Flaming
Moe's" and "Radio Bart" at 15th, 16th and 20th positions,
respectively.[12]IGN.com made a list of the best guest
appearances in the show's history, and placed Aerosmith at 24, Spinal Tap at 18, the "Homer at the
Bat" baseball players at 17, Jon Lovitz at eight, and Michael Jackson at
number five.[13] IGN
would later name "Flaming Moe's" the best episode of the third
season.[14]Chris
Turner, the author of the book Planet Simpson, believes that the
third season marks the beginning of "the Golden Age" of The Simpsons and
pinpoints "Homer at the Bat" as the first episode of the era.[15]

List of
episodes

Key

In the # column:

The first number refers to the order it aired during the entire
series.

The second number refers to the episode number within its
season.

The production code refers to the code assigned to the episode
by the production team. The first two characters refer to the
season the episode was made for: 7F for season two, 8F for season
three. The second number is the order the episode was produced, not
the airing order.[21]

Homer's sanity is called into question
when he arrives at work wearing a pink shirt. After Bart takes
Homer's mental stability test for him, Homer is committed to a
mental hospital where he meets a big, hulking bald man who says his
name is Michael
Jackson. Meanwhile, Lisa is depressed over her upcoming eighth
birthday, but is very happy in the end to receive a song that is
written specially for her birthday.
Special guest star: Michael Jackson (under the pseudonym of
"John Jay Smith") and Kipp Lennon.[22]

While reading a copy of Reading
Digest, Homer finds an entry form for an essay contest for
which Lisa signs up. When she successfully wins the contest, she
and the family travel to Washington, DC where
the finals are to be held. Here, Lisa bears witness to the seedy
underbelly of politics and becomes bitterly disappointed after
learning of a bribery scandal involving Springfield's statecongressman. In her
final essay, she disdains and condemns the government system, which
leads to the arrest of the the corrupt congressman. While she fails
to win the contest, her faith in government is restored.[23]

Homer makes a wish for Ned Flanders to be a financial failure.
The wish comes to life when Flanders's store catering to left
handed people goes out of business, causing the Flanders family to
end up financially in trouble. When finding out that Ned’s house is
to be repossessed, Homer feels guilty and decides to help by
telling all the left-handed population of Springfield about the
Leftorium and calling in a few favors from his friends. This helps
Ned keep the store and get his house back. Meanwhile, Bart goes to
the Japanese bartender Akira and
takes karate lessons, but quits after he discovers that it is not
as interesting as he had expected it to be.[24]

After having a terrible day at school, Bart stumbles
upon the "Legitimate Businessman's Social Club" Mafia bar where the
leader, Fat Tony, hires
him to work as their permanent bartender. However, when Principal
Skinner ends up missing for nearly a week, Bart is immediately
blamed for murdering him, causing Bart to get sent to court. As
Bart is about to get convicted, the principal shows up which leads
to Bart being cleared of all the charges.
Guest star: Joe
Mantegna, Neil Patrick Harris.[25]

Homer accidentally saves the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant and is
ashamed when people mistake him for a hero. When another impending
meltdown threatens the Shelbyville plant, he is asked to perform
his heroic deeds once again. He is lucky again, but this time he is
derided as a lucky imbecile, even more so than he was hailed as a
hero. Meanwhile, Luann Van Houten
forbids Milhouse to be friends with Bart as
she feels Bart is a bad influence on her son.
Guest stars: Magic
Johnson, Chick
Hearn and Jon
Lovitz.[26]

When Krusty comes over to the Simpsons’
house for dinner, he reveals to them that he is of Jewish heritage,
and that his father, Rabbi Krustofski disowned him for pursuing
an a career in comedy, and not a successful career as a rabbi.
Krusty starts to fall apart and Bart and Lisa decide to contact the
rabbi and convince him to forgive Krusty. The rabbi at first
refuses to see Krusty, but Bart convinces him to do so, and the two
reuinte.
Guest star: Jackie
Mason.[27]

When Homer, Bart, and Lisa eat a ton of candy, the
three begin having various nightmares:Lisa's nightmare: The Simpsons visit Morocco and
find a monkey's paw that makes all their wishes come true – with
dire consequences.Bart's nightmare: The town of Springfield must
think happy thoughts or suffer the powers of Bart's twisted
imagination.Homer's nightmare: Mr. Burns kills Homer so he can
transplant his brain into a robot's to create a super-efficient
worker.[28]

When Lisa requires a new saxophone reed for her talent
recital, she asks Homer, who immediately promises to buy her one.
Though when Homer breaks his promise, he makes up for it by giving
Lisa the one thing she had always wanted, a pony named Princess.
With a new pony in the house, Homer struggles with two jobs to
cover the cost. Lisa, upon seeing what Homer must go through to pay
for the pony, decides to sell it.
Guest star: Frank
Welker.[29]

After taking a fatherhood quiz, Homer realizes that he
knows nothing about Bart, and in the result, strives to be a better
father after learning that Bart is one of the racers in the Soapbox
Derby. Their entry is not very good, and Bart decides to drive Martin Prince's
much nicer racer. Homer is at first devastated, but decides that he
must be a good father and support Bart. Bart later goes on to win
the race.[30]

One night at Moe's Tavern, Homer
tells Moe Szyslak of
a secret alcoholic cocktail made with cough syrup and fire that he
calls "Flaming Homer". When Moe tries Homer's recipe in the bar, he
finds it boosts his business and patronage, so Moe steals the
recipe from Homer. Later, Moe is about to sell the recipe for
$1,000,000 but Homer comes and divulges the secret ingredient, only
to find out that Moe was planning to split the million with
him.
Guest stars: Aerosmith.[31]

The stock in the Nuclear Plant skyrockets amid rumors
of a takeover meaning that all the workers get rich, except for
Homer who has sold his for a mere $25 and fears that he'll lose his
job. The rumors prove true as two German businessmen buy the plant
from Mr. Burns for $100 million and fire Homer for incompetence. Mr. Burns
decides to buy the plant back when he discovers that his former
employees no longer fear him.
Guest star: Phil
Hartman.[32]

After worrying that she may yet again be pregnant,
Marge drives to Dr. Hibbert's office. While anxiously
waiting, Homer begins to tell Bart, Lisa, and Maggie about how he
and Marge got married at a quickie wedding chapel, and how he
attempted to prove to Marge's sisters that he can provide for their
upcoming child.[33]

When Bart's birthday party turns into a disaster, he
uses an AM radio Homer gave him to play pranks on other citizens.
He decides to throw a radio down an old well and tricks the town
into thinking a little boy is stuck in it. At first he is
successful, but he realizes that he left a "property of Bart
Simpson" label on the radio and goes to retrieve it. Bart becomes
trapped in the well and while the town decides to leave him there,
Homer frantically tries to rescue him.
Guest star: Sting.[34]

Homer begins to bond with Lisa after learning her
unique and convenient ability to pick winning American football
teams. When Lisa finds out Homer has only been using her for
gambling, she refuses to speak to her father until he fully
understands her.[35]

The family's dependence on Marge causes Marge to suffer
a nervous breakdown during her early morning errands, and she
decides to go to a spa resort to calm down. Homer, meanwhile has to
care for the troublesome Maggie while Bart and Lisa spend their
time with their spinster aunts, Patty and Selma.
The entire family realizes how much they need Marge to take care of
things, and everybody is happy when she eventually returns from the
spa.
Guest star: Phil
Hartman.[36]

When a yo-yo craze sweeps over Springfield Elementary
School, Bart's inept yo-yo happens to break a fish tank,
killing the class goldfish. Edna Krabappel sentences Bart to a month
of detention. Bart decides to write phony love letters to her under
the guise of a man who responded to her personal ad. Meanwhile,
Homer tries to cut back on swearing after Flanders complains that
Todd is picking up on the foul language.[37]

The school makes the students take an aptitude test,
and it ends up suggesting Bart become a policeman and Lisa become a
homemaker instead of a professional jazz musician. While Lisa
becomes a troublemaker, Bart improves his grades and behavior and
is chosen to be Principal Skinner's newest hall monitor.
Guest star: Steve
Allen.[39]

Santa's Little Helper (SLH) falls
ill and the family must make budget cuts in order to pay for his
operation. Although the dog's life is saved, the family begins
treating him badly so he runs away. SLH ends up in the possession
of Mr. Burns, who trains him to become a vicious attack dog. Bart
stumbles across the new SLH and is attacked, but SLH recognizes
Bart and decides to stop the attack.[40]

After his behavior at the movie theater embarrasses
Marge, Homer and Marge have a large argument, causing Homer to head
to a redneck bar where he meets a beautiful barmaid named Lurleen
Lumpkin with a talent for singing. Homer becomes her manager and
does everything he can to make Lurleen famous, but it takes a very
long time for him to notice Lurleen has fallen in love with him.
With Marge already upset and thinking Homer's the one with the
roving eyes, it's time for him to decide on his romantic
future.
Guest star: Beverly D'Angelo.[41]

Selma reveals that she has a new boyfriend that she met
through the prison pen-pal program, Sideshow Bob. Bart is immediately
suspicious of Bob, but he does everything he can to romance Selma
and prove he's changed. After Selma and Bob are married, Bob
reveals that he plans to kill Selma, but he is stopped by
Bart.
Guest star: Kelsey
Grammer.[42]

Otto crashes
the school bus, and is later discovered that he never actually
owned a real driver's license, prompting authorities to fire him.
Otto then moves in with the Simpsons after he has been evicted, and
attempts to teach Bart to learn to play the guitar, though with
difficulty. But it's the way he enrages Homer that might provide an
inadvertent return ticket to his beloved bus-driving job.
Guest stars: Christopher Guest and Michael
McKean.[43]

Milhouse falls in love with the new girl, Samantha
Stankey, jeopardizing Bart and Milhouse's friendship. Bart
eventually calls Samantha's father and lets him know what's
happening. Her father takes her away, which leads to Bart and
Millhouse having a fight. Meanwhile, Homer orders a subliminal
cassette tape to help him lose weight, but is accidentally sent one
that helps him increase his vocabulary after the weight-loss tapes
sell out.
Guest star: Kimmy Robertson.[44]

When the radiation from the Nuclear Power Plant causes
Homer to become infertile, he is awarded a complete $2,000
compensation. Meanwhile, Homer's half-brother, Herb, now living on
the streets, returns with a plan on how to regain his name, wealth,
and life back and reluctantly turns to Homer for help. Herb asks
for Homer's $2,000 so he can develop a new product that will
translate baby gibberish into speech.
Guest stars: Danny
DeVito and Joe
Frazier.[45]

DVD
release

The DVD boxset for season three was released by 20th Century
Fox in the United States and Canada on August 26, 2003, eleven
years after it had completed broadcast on television. As well as
every episode from the season, the DVD release features bonus
material including commentaries for every episode.